We took our first camping trip of the year during the first week of April, a two-night stay at Lewes, Delaware. We had nearly the whole transient section of the Tall Pines Campground to ourselves; one night there was someone in a pop-up on the other side of the bathhouse. It was a little chilly for camping (over night the temperatures got down to -4ºC or 25ºF), and the water in the city water hose got a little stiff. We took advantage of spring break to be sure all of the Moving House's equipment was working before our summer trip to Idaho. We ended last summer's travels with a refrigerator that was not working but the folks at Leo's Vacation Center told us there was nothing wrong with it. Amazingly, the refrigerator was working as was everything else that we tried. I forgot several things at home, most importantly my wallet with my driver's license. I drove all the way from home to the campground so I'm glad no one stopped me to check my license.

While at Lewes, we visited the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

It was chilly enough and quite windy so that I wore all the layers of clothes that I brought. In addition, we did not see many species of birds because it was still too cool for them to venture north. Surprisingly, we did see this Black-necked Stilt and a Greater Yellowlegs, species that we'd seen during much warmer times on St. John in November. We also saw American Kestrels, Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teals, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, lots of vultures and others.

Gail reading a Prime Hook NWR bulletin board	Black-necked Stilt
Wetlands in the Wildlife Refuge	One of several American kestrels on the power line

One afternoon we visited Cape Henlopen State Park, where a 75-foot observation tower is preserved. This tower and a dozen like it had been built during WW2 to direct the guns of Fort Miles against German warships. The guns never were fired in battle.

Observation Tower Number 7	Gail looking through the slit of the Observation Tower
Seashore seen from the “Great Dune”

We walked the nature trail at Cape Henlopen State Park and got lost twice. The trail does not have a lot of blazing, but a lot of trees were down near and across it, maybe due to “super storm” Sandy.